Brand management is one the first critical aspects before heading into a marketing plan. Its generates a goal to success but before you even start a small business you have to develop your brands reputation / equity. As the articles says you need to put a lot of clarity into your brand and there are three steps in doing this : 1) Make an inventory of skills 2) What are your customers' needs? 3) Focus on what differentiates. Following these steps are just the beginning of making your brand stand out further then other brands Making your brand have a clear and descriptive message in what your trying to succeed or what the brand is about will hep consumers understand where you are coming from and engage them further as well. This will definitely give a great start to your brand equity and get you on the way to success for your business.

I agree with duncan in that brand management is a crucial aspect of the marketing plan. The three brand strategies listed in the article are; making an inventory of skills, what are your customers needs? and focus on what differentiates. These are all key aspects when deciding on a brand. As duncan said the brand has to be clear and descriptive attracting its consumers. If brand management has been executed poorly this could effect the whole marketing plan causing customer loyalty and financial loss.

Brands can struggle getting beyond communicating the features they provide – which are often identical to their competitors’ features. This limitation means they never create compelling demonstrations of the benefits and brand value they can deliver.

In contrast, while developing my presentation on “New Product Launch Failures” for the PR Consultants Group conference recently, I rediscovered this FedEx advertisement from the late 1990s in a previous presentation. While we used the FedEx advertisement internally to communicate the importance of performance for our transportation company, the ad is also a fantastic example of a B2B brand making its brand value very clear AND very personal.

This article shows that brand value is a crucial aspect that engages consumers to your company. With Fed Ex listing off 30 bad things in which people don't want to happen when sending a package gives a clear understanding that Fed Ex offers a better value for just a little bit more money. This clearly trying to lower the risks and fears people come to when trying to send a package somewhere. With Fed Ex using this punch of a line : "When packages do arrive on time, the world works just fine" - engages customer to trust what Fed Ex is offering. This adds a lot of value to Fed Ex - the paclkage could be free but have a bad value to it but with a price and with a great value is a lot better as a whole as it results in customer satisfaction and trustworthiness. This article just shows that value to a brand is crucial for a consumer and engages the consumers that will want to send packages and greats great opportunities for those companies that have a great value.

There are so many competing companies around these days that simply do the same thing but can cost less or more. It is always nice to know as a consumer, where your money is being spent and why it is that it may cost more. The companies that usually charge more are the ones who have the better service and the better advertising to make you want to use that product or service over any other.

@danielle Peterson
Competion is so extreme and one slip may determine if a consumer remains a loyal or remains a potential customer for future terms.
Charges vary depending speed and quality of a product (ofcourse aswell as quantity)
For example: Apple phones compared to NOKIA are alot more expensive however worth the same in satasfaction and desired as much if not more for its functions and capabilities of use. However saying that cheap brands can be very well in quality too!!
Services are key in distribution too!

Agreed there are certain expectation of every product because of the past experiences the consumers have with product and the build-up of the marketing communications of the product itself and the company needs to meet those expectations otherwise the consumer could be disappointed and look elsewhere to fulfill their needs.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.